School of Civil Engineering & Architecture, Zhejiang University of Science & Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China.
School of Economics and Social Welfare, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou 310015, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 8;20(4):2950. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20042950.
Meat substitutes such as man-made meat are emerging to promote low-carbon healthy consumption, mitigate climate change, and assist healthy economic development; however, most consumers seem reluctant to make the transition. While profound social change may be required to make significant progress in this area, limited efforts have been made to understand the psychological processes that may hinder or facilitate this transition. To clearly identify the factors influencing the public's intention to consume man-made meat and their influencing paths, this study analyzes the mechanism by which man-made meat information disclosure affects the public's intention to consume these products based on the social cognitive theory of "awareness-situation-behavior" and using structural equation modeling, with residents of seven Chinese cities as examples (647 respondents). The results of this study yielded three main findings. First, low-carbon awareness, personal social responsibility awareness, and man-made meat risk perception significantly influence the public's intention to consume man-made meat, with risk perception having the greatest influence (-0.434). Second, low-carbon awareness and man-made meat risk perception have a significant interaction effect on the public's intention to consume man-made meat (-0.694). Third, man-made meat information disclosure has the most significant moderating effect on the relationship between low-carbon awareness and the public's intention to consume man-made meat, as well as a moderating effect on the relationship between man-made meat risk perception and the public's intention to consume man-made meat.
肉类替代品（如人造肉）的出现，旨在促进低碳健康消费、缓解气候变化和推动健康经济发展；然而，大多数消费者似乎不愿意进行这种转变。尽管在这一领域取得重大进展可能需要深刻的社会变革，但在理解可能阻碍或促进这种转变的心理过程方面，所付出的努力十分有限。为了明确识别影响公众食用人造肉意愿的因素及其影响路径，本研究基于“意识-情境-行为”的社会认知理论，采用结构方程模型，以中国七个城市的居民为样本（647 名受访者），分析了人造肉信息披露如何影响公众对这些产品的消费意愿。研究结果得出了三个主要发现：第一，低碳意识、个人的社会责任感意识和人造肉风险感知显著影响公众对人造肉的消费意愿，其中风险感知的影响最大（-0.434）；第二，低碳意识和人造肉风险感知对公众食用人造肉的意愿有显著的交互作用（-0.694）；第三，人造肉信息披露对低碳意识与公众食用人造肉意愿之间的关系具有最强的调节作用，对人造肉风险感知与公众食用人造肉意愿之间的关系也具有调节作用。
